Still shocked and awed

Matt Yglesias:

It must be said that six years ago the United States of America launched an unnecessary and immoral invasion of Iraq, largely under false pretenses. I tip my cap to those who had the foresight and judgment to understand the morally and strategically disastrous nature of the unfolding events, and I reserve a special bitterness toward those politicians and public officials who were trusted progressive political leaders and who helped sell the country on this misfortune. But it’s worth looking a bit past the domestic political arguments and reserving our deepest thoughts for those individuals, primarily Iraqi, but also including Americans and citizens of our coalition partners, who lost their lives as a result of this tragedy.

The Iraqis and our fallen soldiers, in particular, deserved much better than what they received in terms of political leadership. I just hope the awful lessons from Iraq will guide us as we double down in Afghanistan.

We should never forget what happened on that day or in the days since: